Blainey brings our history to life to put Covid in perspective

At 90 years of age, Geoffrey Blainey continues to inspire us all with his wisdom, his perspective of history and his unique personality (“Coronavirus is bad, but we’ve been through much worse”, 9-10/1). Through historical comparisons, Professor Blainey points out the many calamities, pandemics and natural upheavals that have, over centuries, devastated our beloved country.

His detailed description of the plight of 798 British emigrants, all passengers of the fever ship Ticonderoga in 1852, resonates with me personally. My great-grandmother, Sarah McIntyre, a nine-year-old Scottish child, together with her parents and three siblings, lived through the typhus epidemic that claimed the lives of 178 passengers and crew and shamed the Port Phillip (later Melbourne) authorities into constructing a proper quarantine station at Point Nepean.

While there was ignorance concerning the nature of the COVID-19 virus initially, in 1852 typhus was falsely thought to be transmitted by fetid, foul air and not by body lice that were to be found on all passengers and crew.

An effective antibiotic for typhus was not available until the late 1940s, whereas with today’s remarkable advances in pharmacology we will hopefully have a vaccine to halt the COVID plague in a matter of months.

Sarah eventually went on to marry George William Geyer, a German emigrant and the first settler in St Arnaud, Victoria, and they went on to have eight children.

Lyle Geyer, Essendon, Vic

Booming up north

During the COVID border closures at Christmas, I took the opportunity to head up to Townsville and spend a couple of quiet days with my dad, thoroughly expecting his business would be super quiet.

How wrong was I? His business was busier than I had ever seen it. The customers were queueing out the door. Cars, caravans, families, couples — everyone was stopping in for ice cream, coffee and pancakes.

My visions of quiet lunches, chatty coffees and quality time with my dad were dashed. I grabbed a tray and a cloth and began to clear tables. I started asking people where they had come from and where they were going. Most were from Townsville and had driven the 70km for a treat and an outing. The rest were Queenslanders coming up north for their holidays rather than going south over the border to NSW. Many had travelled up from the Gold Coast and Brisbane and were heading even further north.

My dad (Alf Poefinger) is now 80. He arrived in Australia from Munich in the 1950s, like so many others, with little more than a suitcase. He started his business more than 30 yearas ago after doing up a rundown farm. Now he employs a dozen people and even through COVID his staff still have work, and more than they can handle. I am extremely proud to be his daughter.

Susi Thomas, Crystal Creek, NSW

Cricket cringe

As an Australian cricket fan I have decided I can’t watch the Australian Test team on TV any longer. Their on-field behaviour has become an embarrassment.

There are four players in particular I find irritating to watch:

Captain Tim Paine: always flapping his gums behind the stumps trying to break his opponents’ concentration. Surely one must play the game with the ball and not one’s mouth?

Slow-bowler Nathan Lyon: almost always glares at the batsman after delivering each ball with his hands outstretched.

Similarly, fast-bowler Josh Hazlewood: glaring at the batsman after delivering each ball.

Marnus Labuschagne: also guilty of having a lot to say after each ball has been bowled. In addition, when he is batting, it is irritating to see bubble-gum being blown out of his mouth and the way he makes the bowler wait while he fiddles at the stumps.

I always thought that this was the “Gentlemen’s Game”. I will continue to watch the Big Bash League, where the game is played without this behaviour.

Les Pivnic, St Ives, NSW

After suffering the very annoying comments by Tim Paine after every ball that Nathan Lyon bowls for 2.5 test matches, I must ask if Paine’s objective of unsettling the batter has any merit?

Terence Pearson, Bicton, WA

Meagre fare

David Stratton certainly evoked memories or World War II in his critique of Summerland (8/1). As a fellow octogenarian raised in London I well remember the empty shops, too. Chocolate was not seen until the 50s. Fruit was unheard of except when our apple tree produced once a year. I never tasted anything made with sugar; the tiny ration amount was carefully saved for when my father and uncle came home on leave and then it was used for endless cups of tea. I never saw an egg. The list is huge, but I wonder if my good health today is due to all this deprivation. There was no eating between meals, unlike my grandchildren who snack all day.

Jean Aldred, The Gap, Qld